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I do have serious Anxiety but I am not ready to see anyone yet. I get panic attacks thinking about death and being no more.
I want to live forever, people say death makes life worth living. I don't agree. I would do anything, learn more instruments do new hobbies read more. I wouldn't get bored at all
What happened to me was about month ago. I saw a you tube video well produced about a dying dog, these guys found it and took it home and watched over it and then it died. It had a drink of water and then died shortly after.
I can't understand why in one single moment, it's alive and then it dies in to nonexistence. Yet they were there for a simple moment for it's last existence, That will be all of us at some point..
I then think about my life and have an opened question, which I do not understand
How do you handle nonexistence? I simply can't for some reason, I can't handle being erased. It makes me wonder... was I truly lucky to even live and be born? Maybe people never born were the lucky ones. Because we know what life was like good and bad and then it's taken away from us. Not born people never new and didn't need to be bothered.
Do you think all of us are here by chance?
If I needed a specific sperm and egg to make me, and different sperm would have made someone else let's say
That indicates a formula for my existence (Specific DNA and only that DNA is the code to make me) and all of us has that unique formula.
If a different sperm and egg met, and the formula is made someone else and they are born and not me. How their consciousness differ from mine? How could they become an "I" and they become an "I"
If's that true. and I got the lucky sperm and I arrive, then how can I account for my own subjective experience? vs. the formula for another person.
I could have only been me no matter what( with that specific sperm and egg). So let's say random sperm hits the egg and my specific formula was chosen, and now I exist.
That means I could have only existed one way with this specific DNA and I could not have been anyone else no matter what.
Then who am I living through these eyes? and where does my sense of self come from? and I don't mean Biology. I already know the brain stuff.
If I can only be me, am I inevitable then if the correct sperm and eggs meet.?.and some one else is also possibly inevitable if their specific Sperm and Egg meet ?
Then we each have some deterministic formula and we are not random. But having that formula for each person be born might be random?
But we both see the world in our own eyes? we're both different people and who am I on the inside?
How can I account for being myself? How can I account only looking at world in this body and my unique experience and self awareness.?
The only thing I know is my own life. I can never see the world as anyone else, only as me in my own eyes and brain.
What determines that I can only be me and my sense of self-awareness and thought are mine.
My entire view of the world is separate from another person, I can only be me and they can only be them.Then how did I get to be me and self aware?
I can never cross over and be someone else. Why is my total sense of self only based of that DNA? and I am locked in as me? I am me and why is that?
This so tough to explain and ask
I hope these thoughts don't add to your anxiety, Dave, but I often think the same...how I'm trapped in this mortal body, and but for my heart beating the Universe would, in a sense, not exist. If this life is all there is, Birth and Death are basically the Beginning and End of the Universe! It's a subjective way of looking at things, but Death would mark the end of everything, forever. If it makes you feel any better I think the fact we as humans find this intolerable might point to an afterlife. Not to get preachy but there's a verse in Proverbs of Psalms in the Bible that says God has set eternity in the heart of men. Maybe it's natural that we think like this, and those that claim they don't fear or don't care are really living in a state of denial...
I hope these thoughts don't add to your anxiety, Dave, but I often think the same...how I'm trapped in this mortal body, and but for my heart beating the Universe would, in a sense, not exist. If this life is all there is, Birth and Death are basically the Beginning and End of the Universe! It's a subjective way of looking at things, but Death would mark the end of everything, forever. If it makes you feel any better I think the fact we as humans find this intolerable might point to an afterlife. Not to get preachy but there's a verse in Proverbs of Psalms in the Bible that says God has set eternity in the heart of men. Maybe it's natural that we think like this, and those that claim they don't fear or don't care are really living in a state of denial...
Here again, I return to the issue of Jesus' resurrection. If he was thoroughly killed (nearly beaten to death, nailed to a cross (through bones and major nerve bundles), speared through lungs and heart, etc.), and three days later was walking around, alive and healthy, talking to disciples and such - no IV's, catheters, wheelchairs, attending nurses, etc., then HE is the only person that can answer our questions of "what's it all about?" Who else has done such a thing? (please do some research before you offer me the misinformed "Horus" answer!)
I know that it is popular to deny that Jesus (Yeshua) even existed, let alone performed miracles and returned from the grave, but if there is any possibility that he did, then there is nothing of greater import to investigate. If the account is true, then he fully understands and in fact defines reality; and we need to pay careful attention to everything he had/has to say.
So is it true? The most convincing answer to that question ultimately has to come as an interaction between him and you. He has proved himself to me, and I cannot be dissuaded. But another place you might start would be to read a book - yes, I would say "the Bible," but here again it has become very popular to laugh at THAT particular book (as I myself did for many years) - so I will make another initial reading suggestion: "the Case for the Resurrection of Jesus" by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona. They take a very informative tour of investigative journalism and historical research, applying the principles as they go to the question of the resurrection. They are even careful to consider possible influences like mass-hysteria and such, and very cautious about jumping to unsupported conclusions.
Last edited by DoTheMath7; 05-19-2014 at 11:26 AM..
I don't care how smart; how well published in peer-reviewed journals; how well liked and respected a person is or how popular their viewpoints, if what they think or say is contradictory to what Jesus taught and proved in his life, death and resurrection, I will listen to Jesus - NOT them! (not even ME, when I go off on such a tangent!).
"In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-3 NASB)
I'd love to see you there, but you're not going to get there by following Richard Dawkins or Bill Maher, or . . . ME! . . . Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:5-7 NASB)
I don't care how smart; how well published in peer-reviewed journals; how well liked and respected a person is or how popular their viewpoints, if what they think or say is contradictory to what Jesus taught and proved in his life, death and resurrection, I will listen to Jesus - NOT them! (not even ME, when I go off on such a tangent!).
"In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:1-3 NASB)
I'd love to see you there, but you're not going to get there by following Richard Dawkins or Bill Maher, or . . . ME! . . . Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:5-7 NASB)
I don't care about dem dere facts, I gots my opinion and that be that.
I know that it is popular to deny that Jesus (Yeshua) even existed, let alone performed miracles and returned from the grave, but if there is any possibility that he did, then there is nothing of greater import to investigate. If the account is true, then he fully understands and in fact defines reality; and we need to pay careful attention to everything he had/has to say.
That's part of the point. There isn't conclusive evidence that Christ even literally existed. Even religious scholars who've thoroughly studied the evidence only think he probably existed, but the evidence isn't conclusive.
That's part of the point. There isn't conclusive evidence that Christ even literally existed. Even religious scholars who've thoroughly studied the evidence only think he probably existed, but the evidence isn't conclusive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swan Dive
I heard once that they thought Christ was an aggregate of different people. I have no idea if this was true, but it was an interesting theory.
I heard a claim Christ was a man who lived a life or regular life, then died, not on the cross.
"That's part of the point. There isn't conclusive evidence that Christ even literally existed."
"I heard once that they thought Christ was an aggregate of different people."
"I heard a claim Christ was a man who lived a life or regular life, then died, not on the cross."
As I stated before, IF HE DID (and He did), as stated and presented in the Bible, then THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING, and NOTHING is more important in this life! You need to come to your OWN conclusions on the matter. Do you think that even "religious scholars" (like "the Jesus Seminar") are necessarily supportive of the account or the truth? It was "religious scholars" that had Jesus crucified in the first place.
So, again, I would recommend a book - "the Case for the Resurrection of Jesus." The authors tell specifically what evidences DO exist, and how such evidences are taken into account in any historical investigation, and apply it, without jumping to unsupported conclusions. They let YOU examine it all. I might also suggest a study of the "Messianic Prophecies" of the Old Testiment, written many hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and preserved quite well, even by a religious group who DON'T accept Jesus.
IF Jesus was who and what HE said he was (and is), then you owe it to yourself and your family to STUDY the issue. Don't just read the opinions of such haters of Christianity as Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. Sure, read them too, but continue your study PAST them. Realize that they are only people, and have their own biases!
The difference between Heaven and Hell may well hang in the balance. That should be a good impetus to study hard and decide for yourself!
You do not fade into non-existence. There is an afterlife whether you accept that or not. It is arrogant of one who lives in the physical world and has only known of the physical to think there aren't any other worlds.
"That's part of the point. There isn't conclusive evidence that Christ even literally existed."
"I heard once that they thought Christ was an aggregate of different people."
"I heard a claim Christ was a man who lived a life or regular life, then died, not on the cross."
As I stated before, IF HE DID (and He did), as stated and presented in the Bible, then THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING, and NOTHING is more important in this life! You need to come to your OWN conclusions on the matter. Do you think that even "religious scholars" (like "the Jesus Seminar") are necessarily supportive of the account or the truth? It was "religious scholars" that had Jesus crucified in the first place.
So, again, I would recommend a book - "the Case for the Resurrection of Jesus." The authors tell specifically what evidences DO exist, and how such evidences are taken into account in any historical investigation, and apply it, without jumping to unsupported conclusions. They let YOU examine it all. I might also suggest a study of the "Messianic Prophecies" of the Old Testiment, written many hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and preserved quite well, even by a religious group who DON'T accept Jesus.
IF Jesus was who and what HE said he was (and is), then you owe it to yourself and your family to STUDY the issue. Don't just read the opinions of such haters of Christianity as Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. Sure, read them too, but continue your study PAST them. Realize that they are only people, and have their own biases!
The difference between Heaven and Hell may well hang in the balance. That should be a good impetus to study hard and decide for yourself!
Come on, you can't be a grown man and believe in hell.
Anyhoo, how about Buddha and Mohammed, both real life dudes also. They have the most important messages.
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